Hi.
Making my own battery cables and needed to know what recommended size would be. A company sent me some 4 AWG wire but it seems smaller than what’s needed. It’s a stock size externally regulated alternator with no power doors, windows or seats so there isn’t much draw other than necessary components. I would have thought a thicker gauge such as 1/0, 2/0, etc would be needed but even in specs on various cable manufacturing sites, it lists 4 gauge as the size. Thoughts?

 

4ga is good for 200A on a 15 foot run. It should be fine for your car.

 

When it comes to battery cables, overkill is good. What’s the point of have a battery with 800cca if most of the current is used heating up undersized cables?

Be careful of cheap cables. To keep costs down, there are some cables advertised as a certain size, but with thicker insulation and less copper wire.

I would use what’re gauge wire the factory used, maybe one size larger.

 

The previous of my car had cranking issues. He replaced the starter with an o.e. reman and ran 1/0 cables. I installed a 800 CCA battery after the one he installed failed. Mine cranks very fast!

Pat

 

Electrons prefer the path of least resistance.

 

Many, many DC negative ground system problems can be attributed to bad connections. Clean all ground and positive connections. A 10 year old vehicle can easily suffer from crap grounds.